Choreographing the Images of Story

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Story’s Setting – Where to Begin

Knowing where you are is as important in everyday life as it is in story. Much like a building’s address, the setting of your story lets the listeners know where they are going and what they can expect when they arrive. Through the vehicle of story, the storyteller transports their listeners into the physical reality of story’s journey. Story’s location and characters live in the physical reality of story. They too have emotions, lives and physical and emotional challenges like any of us experience.

When developing a story orally, you have only a few simple sentences to quickly bring your listeners into the reality of your story’s setting, unlike authors who can fill pages or even chapters about the setting of their stories. Storytelling happens in the moment. It can’t be repeated, re-run or bookmarked for future reference.

In the beginning of the story as well as the ending of your story, a few carefully crafted and memorized sentences will ensure a strong start and the arrival of your designed ending or story’s destination. The middle, just like any road map, the roads, waterways, back alley’s or fight patterns depends on you the storyteller. As in life, as in story, there are many roads to get to a single destination.